A Different Birthday Party

From what I saw the fun was in opening and talking about the gifts. It also gets them thinking about more than themselves.

Look at your community and see what groups need your support then adopt one that you feel most comfortable with and support it. When you have a party ask people to bring a donation instead of a gift for you. In the case of my granddaughter the group had a wish list of things people could donate.

You might want to talk to them about other charities that could use some help. In just the past few days of talking to people I have had many additional suggestions. The local Sheriffs Dept is looking for Pajamas for children that they have to remove from their homes often with only the clothes on their back. The Police Dept is also collecting stuffed animals to give to children when they are in stressful situations(accident, major traffic stop, or even when parents re arrested for criminal charges with children present). Many churches have mission projects that the children could support. The Idea of giving to the food shelf but rather than give basic food give Birthday Party Supplies, Cake Mixes, Frosting, or gift cards to a local fast food restaurant. Many civic clubs have special projects that could use this type of support. It would be a good time to talk to your grandchildren and talk about community service and help them investigate what groups are out there and let them adopt one of their choice. Maybe it would be a group home, or women's shelter or the local hospital. When I was growing up we had a local radio DJ who visited a friends child in the hospitalover Christmas and was saddened to see some of the children spending Christmas with no presents. He started a penny fund for other children to send in pennys to help buy Christmas presents for the children in the Hospital. Within a five years this program was ble to go from Christmas presents in one hospital to a gift for every child in all seven area hospitals whenever they were admitted. I would like to see our children and grandchildren take up the challagen and adopt a charity to help and support. What has happened is we look to the government to do these things and we lose the personal connection.

Thank you for the great suggestions. I'll definitely sit down and have a talk with them. I know they'll especially like the idea of helping out children who are hospitalized. A friend of the family is suffering from leukemia and in fact is in the hospital as I write this to receive a bone marrow transplant donated by his brother. The kids have really become aware of how many children there are with serious illnesses, some of them terminal, and I think getting something started where they can collect donations to give these kids in hospitals things to cheer them up. Also maybe gift cards or donations for the parents and other family members of sick children, maybe something like gas cards to help them with the expense of frequent trips to the hospital or restaurant gift certificates or cards. I'm thinking as I type here so excuse me if I ramble, but I'm also just now thinking of something like donating coats, boots and other warm clothing for children who don't have any. Annie